Our Costa Rican Adventure

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Month: December 2018

The pizote (aka white-nosed coati) is a mammal similar to a racoon that is common in Central America. We often see them on our mountain, running across the road or climbing up a tree to grab some fruit. Given the opportunity, both Olivia and Wylder, will chase the pizotes. They look cute, but their sharp claws can be dangerous to dogs that venture too close. Recently, Wylder got reminded of this when she ran after a pizote that was in our papaya tree and got a big gash on her nose. It was decided that stitches were in order, so we took her to the vet in Quepos where she got four stitches and some antibiotics. This was the second time Wylder got a cut on her nose from a pizote, so it seems she can’t resist the chase.

In early October, Eddie turned 61. In celebration, we had a birthday dinner with friends at Paul and Eugene’s for some great Thai food. Awesome as always!

With Peggy and Chis

The guys (Benny, Gib and Rich) enjoyed some of Eddie’s home brewed beers

In November, our friends Tia and Mary Carmen stopped in for a fun over night visit during their Costa Rica vacation. They also enjoyed some of Eddie’s beers!

We enjoyed a fabulous Thai meal at Paul and Eugene’s rancho restaurant – Spice in the Jungle

Rusty just can’t resist checking everything out!

A Thanksgiving tradition has been set! We enjoyed yet another turkey feast at the home of our good friends and neighbor, Toni and Gib. (We are sooooo lucky!). Nothing is spared by these wonderful hosts when they throw a party!

Taking a break with Toni

Ray, Eugene and Paul

Speaking of traditions, another is having Eddie’s fabulous apple pie at Thanksgiving. Eddie’s pie was so popular this year that Liz, Ray and George wanted more. Liz asked Eddie if he wouldn’t mind giving her and her friend George a lesson in making the delectable dessert.

Liz and George’s apple pie received high marks from Eddie

When we moved to Costa Rica in January 2014, one of the first things we did was to buy our Toyota truck – a gray 2006 Hilux 3.0 TurboDiesel. It served us very well, but we recently decided it was time to sell it and buy a newer vehicle. So, after quite a long search, Eddie found a nice white 2013 Hilux for sale in San Jose. It’s similar to the old Hilux, but has some updated features and of course is 7 years newer with a lot less miles. We were able to sell the 2006 to another expat who is a friend of one of our new neighbors on our mountain.

During one of our morning walks on the beach, we saw something in the distance close to the surf. As we got closer, we realized it was a two-toed sloth. The poor guy was really struggling to crawl his way out. The tide was rolling in much faster than the sloth could move. While Eddie kept the dogs at bay, I found a large piece of bamboo to help move the sloth. The proper way to touch or move a sloth is to either grab the scruff of the neck like one would do with a cat or lift them under the arms. The sloth will throw out his arms to the sides. They have very long claws and I was afraid that my arms were not long enough to keep him from swiping at me. So, I put the bamboo under his chest and arms and slowly dragged him toward the trees. This guy was pretty heavy and it didn’t help that he was all wet and sandy. It took me about 30 minutes to get him close to the trees. A Tico was having a picnic with his family and as I got closer to them, he came over and asked me what was going on. I explained how I had found the sloth in the surf and he amazed. He took over the task of getting the sloth to a tree. He wasn’t afraid to grab the sloth the proper way. After the man got the sloth safely to a tree, he called his family over to look at him. I got quite the upper body work out…my arms were very sore the next day!

The area where we found the sloth is adjacent to where a river empties into the ocean. As we were walking back to the truck, we discovered his tracts coming from the river. So we then realized that he must have fallen out a tree into the river upstream and drifted all the way down to the ocean. Obviously, he was disoriented and when he got out of the river, he crawled toward the ocean instead of the tree line. He was lucky that we were walking along the beach that morning!

Rusty meets up with an iguana, but decides he better leave it alone

A heavy rain storm washed out the foundation at one end of this bridge on the road into Hatillo. The bridge was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers back in 1984. Fortunately, there are other ways in and out of Hatillo, but we are hoping that it does get repaired sometime in the coming year.